


proper cleansing of cat control

by eloboosting



Category: League of Legends RPF
Genre: Fluff and Crack, M/M, Mystical Intervention, cats at their best, translations in end note and hovertext, wisdom dispenser Acorn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-24
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-06-04 04:51:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6642055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eloboosting/pseuds/eloboosting
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In Gyeonghwan's opinion, one cockblocking cat is already too many. Too bad he's the lucky soul who has to deal with three.</p><p>aka that time Marin really needed to buy a quicksilver sash but didn't have the guts or the gold.</p>
            </blockquote>





	proper cleansing of cat control

**Author's Note:**

> Where do I even begin with this? Other than the fact that Marin/Pyl is honestly [so](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CfGhZ0vVAAAoqzK.jpg) [fucking](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CfiHmtYVIAAVDft.jpg) [adorable.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CYdxx1qUsAA5HyM.jpg)
> 
> Here's the trifecta of cats all in one [picture](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CaBhyQUUcAAx7qZ.jpg). Have some [other](https://twitter.com/LGDReira/status/693763247585931264) [quality](https://twitter.com/LGDReira/status/708602903477358596) [pictures](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CZt0mH3W0AA7eTT.jpg) of Marin with the cats. Bonus picture with imp where he [tries to lick Mango](https://twitter.com/LGDReira/status/719182536274874368), because you know Mango's thinking only one [thing](http://data.whicdn.com/images/73028786/large.jpg).
> 
> ty a, for continuing to nag me until I finished this fic. also e, for also supporting this stupidity <3

Gyeonghwan first meets Chen Bo at All Stars, corralled in for an introduction by the LGD PR Manager, who stands to the side giggling at their awkward hellos. Their interpreters flanking them on both sides are a constant reminder that they can’t understand or communicate with each other, even if they wanted to. Everything Gyeonghwan says has to be filtered through two different sets of people, leaving him and Chen Bo in awkward stilted silence, avoiding eye contact as they wait for their words to find meaning.

And to his surprise, Gyeonghwan finds that he doesn’t mind. Maybe it’s the way Chen Bo smiles or his easy laughter, but when they ask him about who he’d like as his roommate and who he wants to be friends with on the team—

Chen Bo is like a ray of sunshine, and Gyeonghwan wants to be friends with him.

“[你很漂亮](https://youtu.be/49n7t7GUddA?t=6m9s)，” Chen Bo turns to him to say, and from the mischievous smirk he has on his face, Gyeonghwan expects the worst.

“Pyl says you’re very pretty,” the PR manager translates, and Gyeonghwan laughs. Chen Bo is prettier, he could say, but instead he talks about how much he looks forward to moving in and meeting the rest of the LGD team.

He isn’t lying when he says he thinks he Chen Bo will be his best friend on LGD—but there’s a small part of him that hopes for more.

-

Winter is ugly in China.

It’s ugly everywhere, even in Seoul, but Shanghai wears it exceptionally terribly. The smog mixes into the clouds, turning the sky a dirty yellow that permeates the rest of the city. The snow melts quickly enough into gray slush, coating the sidewalks and roads and turning the air frigid. It’s not like Gyeonghwan has the free time to wander around outside, anyway, and he contents himself with looking out the window every so often while he waits for his queue to pop.

Today is his third day in the LGD house in China, and he feels woefully overwhelmed. He hadn’t been as diligent or studious as Jihoon, who already has his Chinese books neatly arranged on his bookshelf in his room in the Vici house, and found himself stranded in a new world with just the barest of skills to survive.

So he plays League.

Or, at least, he’s trying to, until Chen Bo runs into the room, yelling frantically about mangoes.

“Mango,” Chen Bo says to Gyeonghwan’s continued confusion, before clarifying, “My cat.”

It speaks volumes about how well Gyeonghwan’s Chinese lessons are going that they have to use _English_ to communicate.

“Need help?” he asks.

Which is how he finds himself exiting out of his queue and dragged out of the house to learn exactly how cold Chinese winters are.

“Doubi ran before,” Chen Bo explains, and Gyeonghwan gets the idea that Chen Bo _really_ doesn’t want to lose another cat. They’re in a relatively residential neighborhood, more in the suburbs of Shanghai than the city center, with so many places a cat could run and hide that Gyeonghwan has his doubts about how fruitful their quest will be.

Chen Bo seems especially determined, though, and Gyeonghwan doesn’t have the heart to cut him down. They wander around, calling out Mango's name like they might a dog, until the cold really starts to burn.

"Coffee?" he asks and Chen Bo glumly nods.

"Sorry," he says. "To drag you out."

Gyeonghwan shakes his head. "It’s fine,” he says, and then in Chinese, ”帮忙.”

Chen Bo smiles at the effort. “Tone wrong,” he says before repeating the phrase with correct intonation, “Bāngmáng. Try again?”

He spends the next few minutes trying to figure out which of the four tones matches with what sound, struggling with the words until Chen Bo just pushes his coffee closer to him. “Drink,” he says with a laugh. “Teacher better.”

Gyeonghwan frowns, but takes a sip anyway. “你很漂亮,” he says, mimicking the way Chen Bo had said it when he first met. It’s a little sad how much Gyeonghwan’s practiced saying the phrase, but it was the first thing he learned in Chinese—the first thing Chen Bo had decided to tell him.

Chen Bo laughs. “太可爱了,” he says, and then, “So cute.”

When they get home, Gyeonghwan finds a cat resting on his keyboard, staring at him with unblinking eyes.

“Mango!” Chen Bo says, scooping the cat into his arms and cuddling it close to his face. Mango seems to accept this in stride, as if used to the constant manhandling already, and continues to stare at Gyeonghwan.

Gyeonghwan hesitantly reaches out a hand to pet Mango on the head, a little surprised at how soft her fur is. “可爱,” he tries.

Mango finally looks away, and Gyeonghwan has the distinct feeling he’s been judged and found wanting.

-

So he’s been agonizing about asking Chen Bo to coffee for a few days. Whatever.

LGD hasn’t exactly been performing up to standards these first few games this split. That’s an understatement—LGD have been tanking every game and it’s such a huge difference from the success he had on SKT that Gyeonghwan can’t quite figure out if he’s more devastated or surprised.

His Chinese is still terrible, just functional enough to understand the basics of what his teammates yell in game, and they all suffer for it.

He wants to get to know Chen Bo better, see if building a closer friendship off the rift will help their in-game synergy. And maybe he wants to see if they can build a connection that their first meeting seemed to foreshadow.

After a few days of pondering and mulling over the best way to make the invitation sound casual, he’s finally managed to work up the courage to ask after one of their scrims—a couple of games they’ve managed to _win_ , finally. But before he can even make his way over to the far side of the room where Chen Bo sits, they’re interrupted by a bout of incredibly loud yowling.

“I forgot to buy food,” Chen Bo says with wide eyes and rushes over to one of the coaches, quickly talking in Chinese before he’s whisked off in one of the cars. Gyeonghwan’s left standing near his seat, hand slightly outreached.

Mango meows at him, threading through his legs and looking up at him with an expression that can only be described as _smug_. Gyeonghwan isn’t sure what to make of it, but the forlorn expression on his face seems to alert Gwanhyung, who tentatively approaches him.

“Are you okay?” he asks, and that’s enough to distract Gyeonghwan from continuing to stare at Mango.

“Yeah,” he says faintly, looking back at the Mango to see her hop onto one of the empty chairs and start licking her fur. “Of course.”

-

They pull out a win against EPA, which, honestly, isn’t all that surprising—but it’s a win. It’s actually the first series win they’ve managed to pull out all split, and he and the rest of his teammates aren’t willing to let the opportunity for celebration pass them by.

Seungbin and the rest of his ex-Samsung teammates are noticeably more excited by the prospect, drawing them all into rounds and rounds of toasts and shots that Gyeonghwan eventually loses count of. Seungbin continues to goad him on while Cheonju ensures his cup constantly remains full, and he eventually needs help making his way to the shuttle assigned to take them home.

He turns down Seungbin’s invitation to continue on to another bar, begging off with the excuse of wanting to wake up early the next morning for practice. It’s why he wanders into the wrong room in the house—why he ends up slightly swaying at the doorway to Chen Bo and Wei Zhen’s room.

Chen Bo is curled up in his bed, draped along his side with one hand almost falling off the edge. It’s more than a little adorable, and Gyeonghwan steps in without thinking, stops himself just a few paces away from Chen Bo’s bed.

He looks peaceful, eyes closed and mouth curled into a slight smile, and Gyeonghwan reaches out a hand to trace the edge of his cheek. Before he can touch skin, though, he hears a loud meow from the side, and he quickly finds himself face-to-face with Douhua, who delicately walks his way from his resting place at Chen Bo’s side to right on top of his face.

Gyeonghwan blinks and redirects his hand to Douhua’s head, stroking along the fur while the cat purrs in agreement. Never mind the fact that Douhua is essentially suffocating his owner now, tail flicking against Chen Bo’s forehead while he pushes his head into Gyeonghwan’s palm.

He just barely hears Chen Bo murmur, sees him shift underneath Douhua’s weight—and it’s a little like a bucket of water’s been poured over his head, more sobering than coffee or any cold shower. He rushes out of the room as silently and gracefully as a half-drunk idiot can, stumbling his way to his own room while he tries to forget what he almost did.

-

He’s sober this time. He’s _serious_ this time.

He double-checks that all three cats are safely at home, makes sure they’re fully stocked on cat food, tells himself that it’s not a big deal to ask a friend to coffee, and finally makes his way to Chen Bo’s computer in the practice room.

“Hey,” he says in his most charming tone, trying for a casual smile as he rests his hand near Chen Bo’s monitor. “How are you?”

Chen Bo smiles up at him, and Gyeonghwan’s chest feels a little tight. “Hi!” he says brightly, and it’s like the sun’s teleported right into the room and burned his face red. “I just finished watching this!” With _this_ being a highlight reel of one of Gyeonghwan’s recent solo queue games where he’d been [camped to hell and back](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDLv2Zzcte4).

…It’s a sun with an edge that likes to tease.

“Oh,” he says, because there goes trying to impress Chen Bo with his skills and personality. “Yeah.”

Chen Bo must sense some of his reticence, because he seems to backtrack. “It was funny,” he says. “We’ve all had them.”

It doesn’t do very much for his self-confidence, but he’s not here to talk about League, he just wants to ask Chen Bo out to coffee. “Right,” he says. “But I was wondering—”

He doesn’t get very far into his sentence before he’s interrupted by a giant yowl—the only warning he gets for the lump of weight that lands onto his shoulder, claws digging into the fabric of his shirt. “Um,” he says, turning his head to stare into the yellow eyes of Guodong, who makes sure to bare his fangs as he yawns.

“Guodong!” Chen Bo says, scooping the cat off Gyeonghawn’s shoulders and into his arms. He ends up cradling Guodong, bringing the cat up to nuzzle with his cheek. “Sorry,” he says. “He interrupted?”

Gyeonghwan looks at Guodong, who stares back silently at him. He makes an aborted movement to pet him, only for Guodong to narrow his eyes and bat out with a paw.

“Never mind,” he says, because if there’s one way to completely break the mood, a cat angrily hissing at him and causing his owner to try and calm him down—well. Gyeonghwan knows a lost cause when he sees one.

-

Gyeonghwan isn’t usually prone to this level of paranoia, but he’s had the distinct feeling of being watched whenever he’s in the house. His teammates are busy playing League and don’t have any time for that crap, and it’s not like any of the support staff are stalking him—

He looks up from his computer sometimes to see Mango sitting by his desk, staring at him with her unblinking eyes. It’s eerie, to say the least, and he tentatively reaches out a hand to pet her on the head. She accepts it calmly, tilts her head to the side so he can scratch underneath her chin, but she doesn’t look away.

It feels oddly like a warning, a silent reminder of _something_ —not that Gyeonghwan really knows what it could be.

He ends up placing Douhua on his lap one day, pressing him down so he can’t escape. Of all the times he’s been interrupted, Douhua had seemed the most amenable—

"Please," he says, trying to ignore how desperate he is to try bargaining with a cat that can't understand him. "Just give me a chance."

Douhua blinks at him, tilting his head to the side and meowing before settling in Gyeonghwan's lap and curling into a ball to sleep. Of course he does, because how could Chen Bo’s _cats_ be actively foiling his plans to ask their owner to coffee?

Cheonju looks over at him, an eyebrow raised. “You know Douhua’s a cat, right?” he asks dryly. “Also male.”

“No,” Gyeonghwan immediately says. “No, no, oh, god, no.”

Cheonju laughs. “Okay,” he says, but the tone of his voice informs Gyeonghwan that he doesn’t _quite_ believe his rapid refusal. “You’re not asking out our cat.”

“I’m not,” Gyeonghwan repeats, and Cheonju nods along pleasantly. “ _I’m not_. They just keep—”

And does he really want to sound like a paranoid lunatic to his analyst and assistant coach?

“They keep interrupting,” he says. “When I try to ask Chen Bo to coffee.”

Cheonju’s eyebrow rises further. “Coffee,” he repeats. “With Chen Bo?”

He flushes, not sure why he’s so embarrassed by the idea. He took his teammates on SKT T1 out all the time, accepted it as part and parcel of his role as captain of the team.

“I want to get to know him better,” he offers, although that sounds weak. “You know, become friends.”

“Thanks for the invitation,” Cheonju says, just barely audible over a yelling Seungbin in the background, screaming, "[肏你妈](https://twitter.com/LGDReira/status/651759996368220160)!” in conjunction with Chen Bo, the light of LGD and Gyeonghwan’s days, and then a more quiet, “일각*.”

Cheonju looks over at the pair. “Never mind,” he says. “Have fun with him.”

“We can also,” he tries. “But it’s just with Chen Bo—”

Well, actually, what was it about Chen Bo?

“Yes, what is it about Chen Bo?” Cheonju asks him patiently, eyebrow reaching even further up, and Gyeonghwan honestly didn’t think that was possible. “For you to ask him on a date.”

“It’s not a date,” he protests, and Cheonju’s eyebrow nearly disappears underneath his bangs, prompting him to faintly repeat, “It’s _not._ ”

“Why are you so adamant about asking him out?” Cheonju asks, and Gyeonghwan makes a note to never underestimate Cheonju ever again, not with the way his eyes seem to pierce straight into Gyeonghwan’s soul. “Why are you trying to scapegoat his cats as an excuse to run away?”

“I like him,” he says, and then he blanches. “I _like_ him.”

Douhua stirs slightly in his lap, looking up at him with sleepy eyes. Gyeonghwan glances back down at him, absentmindedly petting at his head while Cheonju turns back to his computer with a knowing smile.

It’s not just a platonic friendly meeting he wants with Chen Bo, and maybe knowing and accepting that makes all the difference.

-

He finds Chen Bo in the kitchen, casually snacking on lunch, and Gyeonghwan almost turns right around to run back into the practice room. He stops himself just in time as he feels something twine itself around his legs.

Douhua meows up at him and not for the first time Gyeonghwan considers drop-kicking the cat into the room next door to get licked by a rather tipsy Seungbin. But he’s not into animal cruelty, so he doesn’t.

Mango already suffers enough for both cats combined. Douhua’s secretly his favorite, anyway, with his pretty white fur and his status as the cat least likely to cockblock him from Chen Bo.

Guodong and Mango walk up to him after, looking up at him expectantly, and he feels inexplicably put on the spot. They meow in unison and he raises his hands.

“Okay,” he says quietly, and hopes no one is watching or recording this. “I’ll do it properly.”

He steps back through the door, noticing that all the cats follow him in, hopping onto the counter to get the best seats in the house.

“Chen Bo,” he starts dramatically, and Mango immediately meows in irritation. So he tones it down, okay. Harsh audience. “Chen Bo.”

Chen Bo looks up at him. “Hi?” he asks hesitantly.

“Will you go out with me?” he asks and then adds for good measure. “For coffee.”

Chen Bo blinks at him, and for a terrifying moment Gyeonghwan is afraid he’s about to be rejected.

“Sure,” Chen Bo says with a smile, the same glowing smile that brought Gyeonghwan to China in the first place, the one that made him suffer at the expense of his cats, the one that convinced him Chen Bo was special in the first place.

“你很漂亮,” he says, because why not bring this full circle? He’s fluent enough in Chinese now, able to talk with his Chinese teammates and make his way around Shanghai without fear.

Chen Bo’s eyes crinkle up as he laughs. “太可爱了,” he teases.

He hears someone making gagging noises in the background and figures it’s not the cats this time.

“Can you get a room?” Cheonju asks. “I just want to get a snack without being subjected to this disgusting cuteness.”

Chen Bo doesn’t pay Cheonju any mind, and Gyeonghwan takes that as a signal that he shouldn’t either. “Coffee, then?”

“Right,” Chen Bo says, standing from his chair to take Gyeonghwan’s hand. “Let’s go.”

He leads Gyeonghwan out of the house, confident and with ease like he’s the one whose had it planned all along and this time, no cats stop them. In fact, he hears a round of meows from behind him as they walk through the door.

And if that’s not the sound approval, he doesn’t know what is.

He reminds himself to save Mango the next time Seungbin gets too drunk and becomes a little too curious about how cats might taste. 

Fuck Guodong, though. He didn’t do shit for him.

**Author's Note:**

> *just the tip (for you a)
> 
> 你很漂亮: you're very pretty  
> 帮忙: helping  
> 太可爱了: so cute  
> 肏你妈: fuck your mom  
> 일각: just the tip


End file.
